Do we even still need business cards

Are business cards dead? 

Every so often, the "business cards are dead" meme goes around. High tech business people are more likely to exchange Twitter addresses than business cards. (@beckymccray, by the way.)

Some people use cards that just say "Google me" or only have their name. The implication is that you can find them so easily through a simple search, that they don't need to give you any contact details. (See an example from Rex Hammock, plus a link to his "real" business card.)

At conferences, we're seeing technology solutions that automatically exchange contact info, like the cute Poken devices or the "bump" application for some smart phones. These things come and go. Remember when Palm Pilots used to be the cool tech solution? They've all but disappeared.


However
In the non-tech savvy world, business cards are very much alive. Here are three ways I'm still using business cards:

• My liquor store business cards with drink recipes are popular with customers. 
• In my consulting business, I find that most people in Northwest Oklahoma still say, "Do you have a card?" Out here, no one asks for my Twitter name.
• At conferences full of tech geeks, I still go through a few. I am very selective about handing them out.

Our friend Des Walsh re-examined the design of his business cards, and the discussion is well worth following. And we went through some ideas for great business cards of our own, too.

If we need a moral to this story, it's this:

• Order new cards, not too many, and keep them current.

How about you? Are you using business cards? Where do you tend to hand them out?

Photo (cc) by Chris Brogan.

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